It means that if you ever find yourself in a corner
And, using all your strength, you can’t get out –
There’ll always be a door available –
If you only put your hand out.

It also means that even if you become as successful as a movie star
The next thing that happens might be some kind of personal disaster.

It means that life frequently is outside one’s control –
So you’ll have to be brave
And humble
And, often, you’ll need to be both at the same time!

It means that God sometimes has a somewhat severe sense of humor –
But just not a malicious one.

In fact, you wouldn’t even be alive without wind –
Which is the same as your breath –
Especially since you don’t even need to think about breathing –
Because it’s unconscious – the same as your “true self.”

The moment this “true self” becomes fully conscious, you’ll find yourself enlightened –This is at the core of what Jesus, the Buddha, and Mohammed
Were all trying to teach us!

Fashioned out of stone, symbolically they’re meant to represent “sunlight” –
Because without light, there’s no life.

In 1848, the Masons, to honor Washington, laid the cornerstone
Of the world’s tallest Egyptian style obelisk –
A giant “sunbeam” set down on the broad lawn of the Nation’s Capital
That wasn’t completed until after the Civil War.

Not many people know the Washington Monument symbolizes a “sunbeam.”

Some think it might represent a stone “penis”
Erected in honor of generations of hard-nosed Southern white men,
Others think it might be a stone “compass” used to measure national power.

Perhaps, though, it should have been painted bright yellow
So its original message of light and life would have been clearer.

Or, later on, red
To remind its citizens of all the innocent blood Americans have historically shed.

Or royal purple
To express the awesome power inherent in a long run of Western Empires –
One of which America currently oversees –
But has recently, thanks to the current President, been losing at the speed of light.

Today, America is in danger of becoming increasingly senescent –
Really, just an empire of aging white men –
Whose deepest, longest held desire has been to ignore all the free independent young women
Who still care about this country.

Death creates “beauty” since we’re unable to fully appreciate beauty
Without acknowledging the backdrop of death –
Especially when it’s shining through.

Death creates “love” because we won’t achieve our inherent capacity to love deeply
Without becoming aware of the curtain that’s about to fall –
When love, literally, “explodes” into our consciousness.

Death creates “life” because ordinary quotidian life doesn’t appear fully real to us –
So, unconsciously, when we start becoming aware of this –
Death sticks its ugly head through our window –
And “wakes us up” –
Forcing us to become totally alive!

In sum, so long as we refuse to acknowledge death,
We won’t have the ability to “see” ourselves –
Or much else for that matter.

Terror and the void are birthplaces of extraordinary “beauty,” “love,” and “life” –
So, shouldn’t we be a little more grateful for their existence?